Following the recent granting of planning permissions, Illuminated River, an ambitious public art project which will light up London’s bridges, is moving ahead with the first four bridges transformed in phase one due to launch next summer. London Bridge, Cannon Street, Southwark and Millennium Bridges will be illuminated as part of the project driven by the US artist Leo Villareal and the London-based architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands.

Lighting up to fifteen bridges across 2.5 miles of land, the Thames-based public art piece is set to be the longest public art project in the world and will be on view for at least ten years. Sarah Gaventa, the director of the Illuminated River Foundation, explains, “You don’t have to go out of your way to see the bridges; around 40 million people will see the first phase which is a very positive thing.” The activation of the project will occur in phases, with a second section coming to completion in 2020 and the project being fully delivered by 2022.

Chair of the Board of Trustees, Neil Mendoza, said:

“A tremendous amount of work has been done since the winning team of Leo Villareal and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands was announced almost two years ago. Much of that work has been undertaken in collaboration with organisations up and down the river, including one of the largest and most detailed planning processes London has seen. We are grateful for the contribution of all our partners and look forward to continuing our work together.”

For more information, visit The Illuminated River initiative's website.